Ruehie Jaiya Karri

Author
Ruehie Jaiya Karri

Blogs
Always interested in the “road less traveled”, she went from being a developer to a writer - her dream career. Her writing is simple and uncomplicated, two things she strives to achieve in her life. When not writing, you’ll find her curled up on her couch watching a rom-com or reading a book. A believer of dancing away her blues and a lover of coffee, she is also super passionate about baking.
author’s Articles

Insights & Stories by Ruehie Jaiya Karri

From code to content, Ruehie Jaiya Karri brings a unique perspective to tech and talent assessment. Explore her articles for insightful, easy-to-read takes on hiring trends, recruitment best practices, and the ever-evolving world of technology.
Clear all
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
Filter
Filter

What Top Developers Are Looking For In Their Next Job: A Data-Backed Answer

The tech industry was one of the hardest hit industries due to the Great Resignation. More than 4.5 million people in the U.S. voluntarily left their jobs in November, according to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics. Post-pandemic, the tables have been flipped and employees are now asking more from their employers. Simply offering competitive pay is not enough to keep your workforce motivated.

Employees want more purpose in their life and work. They are holding up employers to higher standards of empathy and understanding, especially now. In a 2022 Salesforce study, 93% of CIOs say this phenomenon has made it harder to hire and retain skilled developers.

Another reason for this crisis has been chalked up to burnout. Stress has been at an all-time high at the workplace due to short-staffed tech teams, tight deadlines, and adapting to new models of work like the hybrid model.

Ask yourselves this—What do developers want from their job? Is it a better work-life balance? Good career growth prospects? Or flexible schedules? Walk a mile in a developer’s shoes to understand what they look for in an ideal job opportunity and what makes them happy. Then you’ll be one step closer to attracting and hiring the cream of the crop out there!

Sidebar: Here are some insightful tips for developers experiencing burnout.

What Do Developers Want

How to attract software developersThe pandemic has fueled soul-searching sessions over whether employees feel valued in their work or not. Dissatisfaction with the answers increases the likelihood of them leaving and looking for a new job—a more purposeful one at that. What can employers do about this?Listen to what your employees are asking of you. Here are a few things studies revealed that employees, in this case, developers are zeroing in on when looking for opportunities:
  • Good compensation

According to the StackOverflow report, the primary reason that makes devs happy is monetary compensation (60%). You have to shell out the big bucks if you want to land a talented developer, especially in today’s market that is purely candidate-driven.

Coupled with a competitive pay package, also look at the benefits that your company can offer. Equity incentive programs, Stock incentive programs, Individual retirement accounts, structured performance-based compensation, paid vacations, and so on are some attractive perks that you can bake into your job offer.
  • Better work-life balance

Recent findings from Glint and StackOverflow show that work-life balance is the second major reason for developers to be happy at work. Work-life balance is inherently tied to your company culture. A healthy workplace culture begets a good working environment, productive work life, and motivated employees.A top-down approach sets a good example for the rest of the company when promoting work-life balance. Enforce company policy to give a long vacation to your employees and shut down early before the holidays. Empower your people with flexible scheduling of workdays to accommodate their needs.
Related read: 7 Ways To Reduce Burnout In Your Tech Teams
  • Doing impactful work

A 2022 Gartner Study talks about how Great Resignation is no longer a worry, rather Great Reflection is. While the former describes the effects felt by employers, the latter speaks volumes about how employees are reflecting on their lives and purpose at work.

Employees, (in this case, devs) are wondering what makes them happy, what satisfaction means, and how much the impact their work has. Experienced developers are looking to make a difference, tackle interesting challenges, and be appreciated/recognized for the same.Seeing their work contribute to the bottom line of your company and have a positive impact on their colleagues, and the community is a huge motivator for highly talented devs.
  • Flexible work schedules

What do developers want to stay happy at their jobs?

Flexibility, whether it’s the number of working hours or where the devs want to work from is no longer a bonus—it is expected.

Remote work and freelance jobs are stealing the spotlight due to the after-effects of the pandemic. They offer greater flexibility and devs do not have to be tied to specific working hours. The graph taken from our Developer Survey shows developer happiness is correlated to their working hours. It is interesting to see that developers who work less than 40 hours a week report the highest happiness index.

With the home becoming a make-shift office, devs' priorities have changed. More than 50% of employees report they would like to work from home at least three days a week post-pandemic, as seen in a McKinsey study.Offer remote/hybrid working models for your employees with the option to structure their workday around their needs—the 9-5 model is slowly becoming a thing of the past by now. The Great Resignation is a reminder that people will switch jobs if their company stood by rigid work schedules and returned to working from an office full-time.
Related read: The ‘Great Resignation’ In The Tech Industry – How To Prevent It
  • Career growth curve

Career growth is a must-have for developers

Our annual Developer Survey revealed that both newbie devs and experienced professionals can be wooed by offers of a good career growth curve (∼60%)—it’s a must-have requirement when looking for a new job.Developers are naturally curious and given the rapid pace at which the tech industry changes, it’s important that they stay on top of things to grow professionally. What they knew a year or two ago might not be enough for them to continue to be an expert in their field. They need to be continuously upskilling and learning new programming languages, frameworks, and upcoming technology in general.Provide learning and development opportunities for your devs to enable them to build their portfolio as well as keep them satisfied enough to stay with your organization.
Related read: War For Talent: 4 Tips for Tech Founders On Team Building And Scaling.
  • Autonomy and creative freedom

Developers have a natural ability to be creative and if they cannot explore new ideas at their workplace, they would want to find a different job that values their input.A greater level of autonomy, impact, and creative freedom attract top talent in the market while simultaneously encouraging developer retention. Enable your devs to play a larger role from ideation to launch—to speak up when they have an opinion and make them feel heard when they have an issue.

Foster a developer-first culture

The era of working 9-5 and taking home the month’s earnings, is over. Developers and other employees across the world want a more human employment value proposition. Monetary compensation is the expected minimum now—acknowledgment, purpose-driven work, growth opportunities, and some more factors as detailed in this article are essential to thriving. This is the value that employees expect their employers to provide.Showing that you care about your people makes them more productive and as studies indicate, makes them more likely to stay at their current job. Which just happens to be what everyone wants, right?

Create The Perfect Virtual Recruiting Strategy For Universities With These Tips

On-campus recruiting has been decreasing in popularity over the years. Running up high travel costs and being time-intensive is less than ideal in today’s fast-paced tech industry. The pandemic proved to be the nail in the coffin for this old-school way of university recruitment.

Universities and other educational institutions across the world canceled in-person career fairs and on-campus recruitment drives. Companies needed to think on their feet to organize their summer internships as well as figure out ways to fill their candidate pipeline. This led to a forced transition to virtual campus recruiting—which turned out to be a good thing so far!

2022 holds the promise of a new start for the modern recruiter. Virtual campus recruiting doesn’t demand a huge budget, eliminates geographical constraints which widen your talent pool, and provides an improved candidate experience to today’s digital-savvy generation—it is a win-win all around.

Let’s talk about virtual campus recruiting strategy, making the shift to a remote hiring model, and speaking the language of Gen Z. The latter of which make up a majority of your target audience in this article.

Creating a virtual campus recruiting strategy: The steps

Virtual campus recruiting strategy tips

Traditional campus recruiting only happens once a year. Now that you do not have to wait until universities reopen to initiate your hiring discussions, virtual campus recruiting can be an ongoing strategy: you can nurture your potential candidates throughout the school year.

As the first company to reach out, you’ll have the advantage of students’ full attention. Here’s what you can do to build an effective virtual campus recruiting strategy:

1. Build a robust hiring plan

Before going all-out with your virtual recruiting ideas and strategies, you need to assess the skill gap within your company—then go on to hiring for those particular roles. List down your hiring needs by taking inputs from team leaders of various departments.

Ask them questions like:

  • What departments need new talent?
  • What skills are the current roles lacking?
  • What level of expertise do you need from your candidates?
  • How do you plan to build/strengthen your employer brand among student groups?

Based on the answers, your recruiting budget, and ROI targets, chalk out your virtual campus recruiting strategy to meet all your goals.

Related read: The Biggest Challenges Faced By Recruiters In University Hiring

2. Add more universities to your hiring pool

Now that you have a solid plan in place, the next step is to have a clearly defined set of requirements—to help decide on the universities to target.

The identified list of schools could be based on the job openings, budgets, and diversity policies. Gen Z expects workplaces to be inclusive and as they make up a majority of the targeted workforce of tomorrow, it’s best if your company gets started on its D&I journey soon—not that you need a reason to be naturally inclusive and empathetic.

The more schools, and the more types of schools you can include in your campus recruitment efforts, the more vast and diverse your pipeline will be. Virtual campus recruiting makes it easy to expand your horizons. Take location out of the picture as you don’t have to physically go to these schools, and then build out talent profiles for specific roles that don’t conform to the usual handful of schools. There’s top talent in all of these places.

Related read: 5 Advantages Of University Recruitment

3. Leverage social media to source candidates

Today’s college grads get everything done on their phones. They rely heavily on digital means to get them through the day. Your recruiting strategy for students being virtual is a blessing in disguise! This is how you stand out from the crowd—by leveraging social media for your recruiting efforts.

Splash your job postings on relevant social media channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram in a creative way that grabs eyeballs. Talk about your brand, what a day at work looks like, what current employees think about your company, showcase your culture, share snappy/fun stories—humanize your company by being authentic.

If you need to build connections with universities that you’re freshly collaborating with but do not have the budget, here’s what you can do. Use Google to search for Dean’s Lists, engineering honors programs, and so on. Search for student awards, competition wins, and membership lists for student organizations. You can get all the relevant student information if you know your way around Boolean search—if you don’t, this article will help you immensely!

Related read: Boost your social recruiting efforts with this CHEAT SHEET.

4. Show interest in students throughout their time at university

Since your entire campus recruitment is going to be remote, there’s no time like the present to connect with students and keep in touch throughout the year. Supporting a continuous exchange of ideas, opportunities, and information all through their time at the university helps to keep your brand at the forefront when it’s time to begin the actual hiring process.

Here are some innovative college recruiting strategies to nurture students:

Share compelling content about the day-to-day goings on at the workplace to keep your company top of mind. Invite students to read blog posts by, and watch videos of, your employees. Allow them to check you out on social media (which you should’ve been updating regularly). To strengthen your brand, share information about the company via webinars or seminars – the nature of work, new patents, cutting-edge research, and career paths. Include QR codes on event materials or flyers to guide students directly to these resources

Spruce up your careers site and encourage students to sign up for your talent community. Shine the spotlight on your company’s work culture, goals, benefits, and rewards. The visual content could include images, employee videos, or graphics to create a story.

Use customized recruitment campaigns that can answer questions like, What steps are being taken for the mental well-being of employees? What do your employees have to say about the culture—both pre-COVID and now? Segment and target talent by major, university, geography, diversity, and more for better results.

Run workshops and mentorships to help soon-to-be graduates, not just for your targeted students, but for all of them. This helps you keep your finger on the pulse and learn what students are interested in while increasing visibility and trust in your brand.

Offer internship opportunities so students can experience for themselves what it would be like working for your company. Bake in project support and incubation programs as part of their learning process.

Related read: Are Remote Internships A New Fad Or Are They Here To Stay?

5. Diversify your engagement strategy

Conducting one webinar to drive engagement and dusting your hands off would’ve worked in a traditional setting but not anymore. It’s important to plan and host several virtual events throughout the year if you want to keep the students engaged. These are a few virtual recruiting event ideas that are a good place to start:

Hackathons are a great way to connect with students and build relationships with them. They drive engagement and attract top talent. You, as recruiters, can even assess potential candidates’ culture fit as they work with your team during a hackathon.

With tools like HackerEarth, you can not only find qualified developers with hiring challenges but can also engage our 6.5 million strong developer community by hosting hackathons.

Virtual career fairs let you connect with students, collate information, host interviews, and assessments—much like on-campus career fairs. You can design your virtual fairs so they have employer booths that attendees can visit, auditoriums for webinars, and chat rooms where they can network with recruiters, hiring managers, and other company reps to find out about open jobs and the benefits of working for your company

Virtual information sessions like AMAs (Ask Me Anything) with your company’s leadership team, QnAs through chat, employee panels to promote various aspects of your company, and the tried and tested webinars, all serve to pique and hold the interest of your potential candidates, i.e. students. Students look forward to personal interaction with employers and have their doubts cleared, so build in time and capability to field questions.

Related read: Benefits Of Creating A Campus Hiring Strategy In India

6. Identify the most efficient tools to assess future candidates

Skills assessment is the first step to screening potential candidates in online campus recruitment. To handle large volumes of student applications, you need to arm yourself with a good coding assessment tool—that helps you identify the students’ potential by conducting assessments for diverse roles as well as objectively evaluating students based on their skills.

This is where we, at HackerEarth step in! Our coding assessment platform generates a leaderboard after every assessment, allowing recruiters and hiring managers to screen the very best developers with ease. You can upload a job description and create a coding assessment from a library of 13,000+ questions across 80+ skills, within minutes.

Coding interviews mark the culmination of your online campus recruitment. An efficient coding interview tool would have an in-built code editor, video chat, offers pair programming, and automates interview summaries. Pair programming interviews can help employers expedite technical skills assessment by assessing candidates based on real-time programming skills.

Our intelligent online coding interview platform, FaceCode comes with a state-of-the-art collaborative code editor, a built-in question library, HD video chat, a diagram board and so much more. It is completely developer-friendly. Click here to experience it first hand.

Related read: 21 Tech Recruiting Tools To Scale Your Hiring

7. Measure your goals to see if your efforts are paying off

You need to dive deep into analytics from your virtual campus recruiting strategy to figure out what is working and what isn’t. Other than the basic number of attendees metric, there are other factors to take into account before declaring your recruitment drive a success. Here are some things to measure:

  • Event attendance numbers
  • Students who RSVP’d but didn’t attend
  • Do these students engage after the event by responding to follow-up messages and submitting applications?
  • Open, click-through, and interested response rates to your emails
  • The number of resumes collected and live chat interactions initiated
  • The number of qualified candidates per event and college
  • The number of hires you made on each campus
  • What interview to offer ratio do you get
  • How many offers to acceptances do you get
  • Retention rates of new hires

How can creating an online campus recruitment strategy help your organization?

  • Virtual campus recruiting allows organizations to access a wide range of talent from various geographical locations and backgrounds, fostering a more diverse workforce.
  • Online recruitment reduces travel and accommodation costs associated with traditional campus hiring, making it a more cost-effective strategy.
  • With the increasing prevalence of remote working, especially in tech and digital sectors, virtual recruitment aligns well with the current work trends and expectations of new graduates.
  • Digital tools and platforms used in online recruitment enable more efficient screening and selection processes, allowing for quicker and more effective candidate assessment.

Moreover, engaging with students through virtual platforms can enhance an organization’s brand as a forward-thinking and technologically adept employer.

Now that you have a strategy in place, it’s time to get the internal team on board. Here’s how:

  • Leverage technology: Invest in reliable virtual recruitment platforms and tools for seamless interaction, interviews, assessments, and presentations.
  • Develop engaging tech-first content: Create compelling and informative content about your organization, including virtual tours, employee testimonials, and interactive Q&A sessions.
  • Train recruiters and representatives: Ensure your team is comfortable with the technology and trained in online communication etiquette and engagement strategies.
  • Build relationships with top universities: Partner with universities and career centers to integrate into their virtual career fairs and recruitment programs.
  • Customize your approach: Tailor your recruitment strategy to each campus, considering the specific talent pool and academic specializations available.

While you align your internal tech hiring team with this new process, do not forget to take stock of the challenges and plan ahead for them. Some of the problems tech recruiters face commonly face when hiring online include:

  • Connectivity problems or software glitches which can disrupt virtual interviews and presentations, impacting the recruitment experience.
  • Creating a personal connection and engaging candidates effectively in a
  • Assessing cultural fit through virtual means compared to face-to-face interactions.
  • Competition for mind space. This where employer branding can improve your chances of attracting the best candidates.
  • Adapting traditional recruitment materials for digital platforms.

Shake up your virtual campus recruiting strategy!

Recruitment strategies for universities do not have to be only career fairs and company presentations. You can play around and add a little spice to your virtual campus recruiting strategy as seen in this article—Gen Z appreciates out-of-the-box efforts to catch their attention.

Be it organizing hackathons to garner engagement, throwing out dress codes to make interviews seem less intimidating, or curating custom campus recruitment strategies, keep experimenting until you find something that works for you. We hope the virtual campus recruiting tips in this article will help you step up your campus recruitment game.

Campus recruiting takes time but it’s worth the wait, don’t you think?

Streamline Your Recruitment Process With These 7 Tips

If we recruiters dream, it would be about how easy tech recruitment could be—create a job vacancy post, watch the applications pour in, and then, pick the best out of them. Just like that.

And it’s back to reality, which is far removed from this mystical land of simple recruitment! The IT industry is known for its complicated and long-drawn-out hiring processes, with recruiters finding it hard to make the right hire. It’s only going to get worse as the industry is grappling with severe talent shortages.

What if we told we had some tricks up our sleeves? To help you hire faster. We dug deep into our own recruitment processes to figure out how to get the best out of them. A lot of companies need to take a second look at their existing recruiting strategies if they aim to hire top talent efficiently.

On that note, here are 7 recruitment process tips to add to your repertoire—to improve candidate experience, streamline your hiring efforts, and attract the very best candidates in the industry.

Tips to streamline technical recruitment

7 Recruitment Process Tips For A Streamlined Experience

The sweet spot of tech recruiting is when you’ve found the perfect candidate for your job opening in the least amount of time—and under budget.

When done right, a streamlined recruitment process can:

  • Slash cost-per-hire and time-to-hire to a large extent
  • Improve the quality of your workforce
  • Increase the overall productivity of your teams
  • Enhance employee engagement and retention
  • Increase diversity within your organization

7 recruitment process tips to help you make your hiring, leaner and meaner:

1. Get straight to the point with job descriptions

Job descriptions are what your applicants see before all else. It can accomplish so much if done right. Do you want a candidate’s first impression of your company to be a generic, lackluster job description? 60% of job seekers gave up on their applications due to unclear job descriptions, according to GoRemotely.

It’s time to bin these outdated job descriptions—create some that are concise, have realistic expectations, do away with buzzword lingo like “young”, “responsible”, etc that don’t mean much, and more importantly, are bias-free. An ideal job description keeps to a 250-word limit, is properly formatted, and doesn’t look like an unappealing wall of text.

We put together this free checklist to specifically help you curate job postings that are well-designed and will bring in good caliber candidates. Recruiters, make it count!

Also, read: 5-Step Guide To Gender-Fluid Tech Job Descriptions

2. Market your job postings on social media for a wider reach

In today’s age, traditional recruiting methods will no longer cut it. Sticking to the regular job portals might not yield the results you’re expecting. Much of the global talent, like the Gen Z, do not read newspapers anymore let alone search for job vacancies in them—they look to Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram to bring them up to speed. 49% of professionals use Linkedin network to scout for job opportunities, as seen in our annual Developer Survey.

The modern recruiter needs to think out of the box and use social media to market their job postings if they want to grab eyes for their job postings. Social media recruiting attracts a far more diverse pool of candidates, is relatively cost-effective, and works better to bridge the gap between recruiters and their candidates.

We have a free cheatsheet + bonus takeaway for you to help kickstart your social recruiting efforts the right way as well as tailor your strategy for popular social media channels. Get your copy here.

Also, read: The Ultimate Guide To Social Recruiting

BONUS: We teamed up with Joel Lalgee, Lead Recruiter at Hirewell to talk about all the questions you might have on social media recruiting. Watch to find out how Joel breaks down the essentials of content creation for social media, the trends to look out for, and the hacks and tricks behind creating a personal brand.

3. Decrease the number of hoops

A lengthy and complicated recruitment process results in higher attrition, with candidates dropping off midway due to poor experience. Studies show 63% of job seekers will likely reject a job offer because of a bad candidate experience and you don’t want that!

Go back to your interview process, and understand the complete journey of a candidate. This way you get to identify gaps/obstacles that may contribute to a bad candidate experience and accordingly, make changes to your process.

Also, read: 5 Steps To Create A Positive Remote Interview Candidate Experience

4. Use an applicant tracking system

ATS solutions alleviate HR folks’ workload and make their jobs more efficient. They save a lot of time too as they no longer have to manually screen thousands of applications. A study by GetApp shows that 86% of recruiters say using an ATS has increased the speed at which they hire candidates.

With tech recruitment on the rise, an ATS is a must-have asset in the HR department. It streamlines the recruitment process, screens candidates by skills and work experience, and acts as a central repository of data that the entire hiring team can access.

Also, read: Remote Work & Recruitment: An ATS Story

5. Screen better with assessment tools

Pre-employment screening assessments improve the quality of hire to a large extent. The technical screening round is designed to filter candidates who exhibit the skills they listed on their resumes. This is where recruiters get to confirm if the candidates are truly skilled. And, coding assessments happen to be an effective way to test the behavioral and technical skills of developers.

Screening tools like HackerEarth make the lives of recruiters easy! Objectively evaluate developers with a rich library of 13K+ questions across 80+ skills and shortlist candidates based purely on their performance with minimal technical know-how. Combine this with other technical skill testing methods like on-the-spot questions and you have a comprehensive approach to vetting a candidate’s technical ability.

We have seen the interview-to-hire ratio drastically improve in the companies that have decided to use a dedicated hiring tool like HackerEarth Assessments. For instance, Zalora, a fashion e-commerce brand based in South East Asia, has been able to shorten its recruitment cycle by 50% by our platform.

Also, read: Technical Screening Guide: All You Need To Know

6. Select the right candidate with coding interview tools

A candidate-first coding interview would be as close as possible to the real job that the candidate is interviewing for. Not writing code on paper or using whiteboards to solve problems. You find the perfect candidate by simulating the exact ‘day in the job’ environment at the technical interview round and assessing the candidate(s) who excel.

Coding interview tools make this possible. They provide a fair, objective, and structured screening as well as evaluation of the candidates. HackerEarth’s intelligent remote interviewing tool, FaceCode allows you to invite and conduct coding interviews on a collaborative, real-time code editor that also automates your interview summaries.

Also, read: FaceCode Update – 4 New Features That Make Remote Interviews Easier!

7. Stay in touch with your candidates

Lack of feedback post interview is a major peeve of candidates as stated by 40% of the respondents of our annual Developer Survey. Nobody likes to be left hanging.

Let the candidates know how and when you will communicate with them, what the interview process will be, and how long it will take. Describe each stage of the remote interview along with what tools you will be using to help them prepare. Communicate changes and delays in your hiring process in real-time to help avoid confusion— it dramatically improves the candidate experience too.

If the candidate was not selected for the role, that needs to be conveyed to them as well. Ghosting candidates as a form of rejection is an absolute NO. Tell them what went well and give actionable tips on how to do better the next time. Candidates will appreciate that you took the time out to inform them personally.

Also read: Ultimate Playbook for Better Hiring

The short of it

We know, all too well, how expensive a bad hire can be. Tweaking your hiring process to make it more streamlined is the first step—to make the right hiring decision. The bonus? An efficient hiring process will strengthen your employer brand, enhance the candidate experience, and bring in talented folks who want to work for your company!

Make use of the recruitment process tips mentioned in this article to elevate your hiring experience 🙂

7 Ways To Reduce Burnout In Your Tech Teams

The pandemic has resulted in a new kind of workplace burnout—making employee well-being more critical than ever. An Indeed survey reports 67% of all workers believe the pandemic has worsened burnout.

Paradigm shifts across all industries in how they work, post-COVID, and an unprecedented talent shortage due to the Great Resignation are sure-fire indicators of employee burnout.

Tech leaders around the world are asking themselves how to avoid burnout at work—how to cope with short-staffed tech teams, long task lists, tight deadlines, and the added pressure of adapting to the relatively new model of hybrid work.

Burnout has become synonymous with tech-related jobs and it doesn’t have to be. It is strongly influenced by how employees are managed and is preventable when you focus on the right factors.

In this blog, let’s reflect on the causes and consequences that come with workplace burnout and go about trying to reduce the chances of this happening.

Understanding workplace burnout: what it is and what it isn’t

I'm getting a bit burned out/crispy y'all. Day to day growing pains and conflict hit me hard today. I don't have a lot of reserves and need to find a way through.
I know a lot of people are in the same place. We'll get through this.
— Joe Beda (@jbeda) March 16, 2021

Workplace burnout occurs due to chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed, as defined by The World Health Organization (WHO). And no, it is NOT solely due to working long hours.

COVID has accelerated the adoption of remote work. IT teams have been forced to take on rapid digital transformation to enable distributed workforces, completely out of the blue. The hyper use of technology, feeling disconnected from your team, or even being micromanaged by your manager can lead to workplace burnout.

When dealing with occupational burnout, I spoke with around 12 people. Colleagues & friends — some of whom I had known for many years.
Most of them said they had also dealt with burnout, either in the past or now. This BLEW MY MIND, since I know them very well.
— Roy Sarkar (@readroy) January 26, 2022

Key signals as given by WHO, to keep an eye out for:

  • Feeling utterly exhausted
  • Harboring negative feelings towards your work
  • Decreasing professional efficacy

According to a Gallup study, burned-out employees are 63% more prone to take a sick day, 2.6x as likely to be actively seeking a different job, and the most worrisome of all, 23% more likely to visit the emergency room.

Also, read: What Recruiters Forecast For Tech Hiring In 2022

How to reduce burnout in the workplace

Job Burnout Statistics

The past 2 years have been stressful, to say the least. People are making different life choices than they would have made before the pandemic, and defining success in new ways.

Employees are zeroing in on what matters most—how to derive maximum value from their work without putting their mental health at risk. They are expecting more from their managers, and more from their organizations in terms of empathy and understanding. 52% questioned their purpose at their day-to-day job in a recent Gartner survey.

As a manager, it falls upon you to take care of your employees—make sure their problems are heard, they don’t have unreasonable workloads, and they trust you to stand by them. But how do you do that when you are experiencing burnout as well?

Remember, as managers, you get burned out too. As seen in a Gallup survey, managers are more likely to suffer frequent burnout than the people they manage.

Managers, here are 7 ways on how to fix work burnout:

  • Lead by example

The team looks up to their manager to emulate appropriate workplace behaviors. This means it is critical for managers to first deal with their own stress. Otherwise, it permeates the atmosphere at work where your team starts picking up on your stress and everything takes a turn for the worse.

Just like any employee on the team, managers need to take their vacation, go on regular breaks, and be intentional about pursuing work/life balance. Show your team that you deal with burnout seriously and set a good example for them to follow.

Also, read: Corporate Compassion In The New ‘New Normal’: Where Do You Stand?

  • Encourage flexibility in the workday

How do organizations and business leaders help their anxious and burned-out employees? Empower your teams with flexibility. Don’t place limitations on how they work and where they work from.

The 9-to-5 workday model had been waning even pre-pandemic, but in a world of remote work and pandemic stress, it’s more crucial than ever that employees are allowed to choose their schedule—and be at their productive best.

A McKinsey study shows more than 50% of employees report that they would like to work from home at least three days a week post-pandemic. Offer remote/hybrid working models for your employees. If anything is to be learned from the Great Resignation, it is that people will switch jobs if their company returned to fully on-site work.

Recognize that when employees have the freedom to structure the workday around their needs, they won’t run into walls of frustration and stress and are instead, more motivated to work.

After working remotely for the entirety of the past two years, HackerEarth has transitioned into a hybrid work model—we are now expected to be in the office only one day per week. And, so far, it’s been great finally meeting our team in person, most of whom joined during the pandemic.

Also, read: The ‘Great Resignation’ In The Tech Industry – How To Prevent It

  • Provide employee assistance programs

Employee assistance programs can also promote self-care and stress management by providing mental health counseling and diet, exercise, and wellness coaching. Managers are not mental health experts but they point their employees in the right direction—encourage them to seek help from the resources available.

We, at HackerEarth, are pre-registered to 1to1help, an emotional well-being Employee Assistance Program that helps employees prioritize mental health. They conduct regular sessions on achieving work-life balance, managing anxiety, why taking care of mental health is important, and so on.

  • Equip employees with the proper tools

Make use of technology. Any task that is repetitive or doesn’t require manual effort can be automated. Leveraging the right set of tools for every task can significantly bring down stress levels and slash workloads for tech teams.

For instance, if you are a recruiter hiring for a developer, you cannot do everything by yourself—manually sifting through thousands of applications does not make sense. You need to be equipped with a stellar ATS to quickly scan resumes, a platform that offers screening capabilities through coding assessments and an intelligent coding interview tool like HackerEarth, and good onboarding software to make your recruits feel right at home!

Also, read: 21 Tech Recruiting Tools To Scale Your Hiring In 2021

  • Limit the team’s working hours

The downside of remote work is knowing how to switch off from work. With the lines getting blurrier between work and personal life, managers need to set clear parameters on work hours and expectations. Keep checking on your employees to ensure they are not overexerting themselves and being tempted to work long hours.

Zoom fatigue is real and hampers productivity to a large extent. As a manager, you have the power to establish meeting-free days, which greatly improve employee well-being. Have one day (or at least a half-day) with no meetings across your team. This will allow employees to catch up on emails and tasks that are behind—otherwise, contributing to a feeling of being swamped. They could even use this time to rest and recalibrate.

  • Promote work-life balance

Glint’s latest Employee Well-Being Report saw that today’s job candidates rank good work-life balance and excellent compensation/benefits as their main factors when considering working for an organization.

Promoting work-life balance begins at the top. At an organizational level, enforce company policy to shut down early before the holidays. Offer flexible scheduling of workdays to accommodate your employees’ needs.

Our entire office at HackerEarth went into OOO (Out Of Office) mode for the first-ever winter annual break last year. That was ten days of absolutely no work— only relaxing, spending time with loved ones, and maybe, going on a trip!

Company-wide Holiday Announcement

Managers must also ensure they take time out for exercise, family, and self-care. Within the workplace, offering a quiet space for your teams to unplug, meditate, pray or relax for a few minutes can help manage stress.

Also, read: 7 Employee Engagement Strategies For WFH Tech Teams

  • Encourage employees to use vacation time

Set an example by taking vacations where you, as a manager, are fully cut off from any work-related communication. Verbally encourage your team members to use their vacation time before it expires.

Make well-being a priority and foster a culture where employees encourage one another to have a healthy, productive work life amply supported by taking breaks to unplug and rejuvenate—either short ones or longer time-off. Given the rampant increase of stress and anxiety over the past couple of years, time-off will do wonders for your employees’ mental health.

Top 10 Programming Languages Of The Future

The future of coding is difficult to predict because different people have unique perspectives and sectors in which they work. For example, an IT employee would see things differently than someone working within the gaming industry does. So there are many factors that go into making this decision-making process challenging for anyone trying to guess what will be popular tomorrow or five years from now!

But some languages stand out as being ahead of their game: Python has been around since 2002 while Java was adopted early last century; you can’t beat these classics when it comes down to finding something stable enough yet innovative at exactly the same time. Nevertheless, there are plenty of newer languages that show promise and could soon take over as the most popular coding dialects.

What are programming languages?

A programming language is essentially a set of rules and symbols used to communicate instructions to a computer. It’s like learning a foreign language, but instead of communicating with humans, you’re communicating with machines.

Think of a computer as a highly intelligent but incredibly literal assistant. It can perform complex tasks, but it needs precise instructions on how to do so. Programming languages provide this set of instructions.

Types of Programming Languages

There are countless programming languages, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. They can be categorized based on their purpose, complexity, and syntax.

  • Low-level languages: These languages are closer to machine code, offering granular control over hardware but requiring deep technical knowledge. Examples include Assembly language.
  • High-level languages: These languages are more human-readable and easier to learn. They abstract away much of the hardware complexity. Examples include Python, Java, C++, and JavaScript.
  • Scripting languages: These languages are often interpreted rather than compiled, making them suitable for rapid development. Examples include Python, Ruby, and Perl.

Top Future Programming Languages

So without further ado, let’s check out the top 10 future programming languages so you can choose for yourself which might be the best programming language for you.

Top Programming Languages Devs Should Be Looking At

Java

The popularity of Java isn’t waning any time soon, as it is still one of the most important popular back-end programming languages in demand for hiring managers looking to fill positions. With a long history dating back to 1995, Java has maintained its relevance due to its stability and versatility. Those with experience coding in Java are able to work on a wide range of projects due to the language’s ability to be used in both back-end and frontend development. One downside to Java is that it can be difficult to learn, so those without a background in coding may find it challenging to get up to speed.

JavaScript

JavaScript is a language that is used on the front end of websites and applications. It allows developers to create dynamic and interactive user interfaces, making it a popular choice for web development. In recent years, JavaScript has also become more popular in the back-end due to its ability to be used in Node.js. JavaScript can be difficult to learn, but there are many online resources available to help beginners get started. These resources can help you understand how JavaScript works and how to use it.

Python

Python has been around since 2002 and is one of the most popular future coding languages. It is known for its readability, making it a good choice for beginners. Python is also versatile and can be used for both back-end and frontend development as well as data science tasks. The downside to Python is that it can be slow when compared to other languages.

Also, read: Code In Progress – The Life And Times Of Developers

Kotlin

Kotlin is a newer language that has been gaining popularity in recent years. It was created by JetBrains, the same company that created IntelliJ IDEA, a popular Java development environment. Kotlin is a statically typed language that runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and has been designed to interoperate with Java code. It is one of the most growing programming languages.One advantage of Kotlin is that it is concise, meaning that developers can create code that is more readable and efficient. Another advantage of Kotlin is that it offers null safety, which helps reduce the number of errors produced by null pointer exceptions.

R

R is a language that is used for data analysis and statistical computing. It is popular among data scientists because it offers a wide range of libraries that can be used for data manipulation and analysis. R is also a programming language, which means that code can be written in order to automate tasks. One drawback to R is that it can be difficult to learn, especially for those who are not familiar with statistics.

C/C++

C and C++ are two of the most popular programming languages. They are both low-level languages that offer a lot of flexibility and can be used for a variety of tasks. C and C++ are also relatively easy to learn, making them a good choice for beginners. One disadvantage to these languages is that they can be difficult to debug. Additionally, C and C++ are not as popular as other languages, so it may be difficult to find developers who are skilled in using them.

Go

Go is a relatively newer language that was created by Google in 2009. It is a compiled language that offers fast performance and is easy to learn. Go is also popular among web developers because it can be used for both back-end and frontend development. The only catch of Go is that it is not as popular as other languages, so it may be difficult to find developers who are skilled in using it.

PHP

PHP is a scripting language that is used for web development. It is a popular choice for small websites and applications because it is easy to learn and use. PHP is also a server-side language, which means that it runs on the server and generates HTML that is sent to the browser. The only downside to PHP is that it is not as popular as other languages and may be difficult to find developers who are skilled in using it.

Swift

Swift is one of the emerging programming languages that was created by Apple in 2014. It is a fast, safe, and expressive language that was designed for developing iOS and macOS apps. Swift is also open source and has been ported to run on Linux. One advantage of Swift is that it is easy to learn. Another advantage of Swift is that it offers type inference, which makes code more readable and eliminates the need for explicit type annotations.

C#

C# is a Microsoft language that was created in 2001. It is a statically typed language that is designed for developing Windows-based applications. C# is also an object-oriented language, which means that it offers features such as classes, inheritance, and polymorphism. One advantage of C# is that it is easy to learn. Another advantage of C# is that it offers type safety, which helps reduce the number of errors produced by incorrect code. The limitation to using C# is that it can be difficult to find developers who are skilled in using it.

Build a future-ready team with HackerEarth

Hackathons are a great way to test the problem-solving skills of candidates as well as assess their knowledge of a particular programming language. They are also popular among developers as a way to learn new programming languages and improve their skills.

The most used programming languages by popularity for hackathons are Java, Python, and JavaScript. However, newer languages such as Go and Swift are becoming more popular. These Hackathons offer an opportunity to explore different programming languages and see which ones work best for you.

Also, read: Building Future-Ready Tech Teams

HackerEarth is the most popular online coding platform for recruiters and developers. With over 40+ programming languages, it offers a rich library of questions to assess problem-solving skills and knowledge of a particular programming language.

Some of the key features and benefits of HackerEarth are:

– It is the most popular online coding platform for recruiters and developers with over 40+ programming languages.

– It offers a rich library of questions to assess problem-solving skills and knowledge of a particular programming language.

– It has a global community of developers with over 1 million registered users.

– It offers an AI-based assessment engine that helps identify the best candidates for a role.

If you are looking for some of the best programming languages to learn, this list is a great place to start!

How AI/ML is changing the way businesses work

Businesses around the world are constantly evolving and with that comes new opportunities for companies to improve their operations and grow their reach. One of the most exciting and rapidly-growing fields in this evolution is Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML). Simply put, AI is the ability of a computer to learn and perform tasks that ordinarily require human intelligence, such as understanding natural language and recognizing objects in pictures. ML is a type of AI that helps computers learn from data. Together, AI and ML can be used to create powerful systems that can do everything from automatically responding to customer support queries to making business decisions.

The potential applications of AI/ML are endless, and businesses of all sizes are starting to realize the benefits they can bring. In a survey conducted by Boston Consulting Group, 96% of the surveyed business leaders said they either plan to use AI in some form or are already using it. And this number will only grow in the years to come. IDC predicts that the global role of artificial intelligence in business will grow from $8 billion in 2018 to more than $290 billion by 2025. This growth is being driven by a number of factors, including the increasing availability of data, the rise of cloud computing, and the advancement of artificial intelligence algorithms.

What is Machine Learning?

Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that involves the use of algorithms and statistical models to enable computers to perform specific tasks without explicit programming. By analyzing large datasets, machine learning models identify patterns and make data-driven decisions or predictions. This technology powers a wide range of applications, from recommendation systems and fraud detection to autonomous vehicles and natural language processing.

Business areas that can be improved with the help of ML

Integrating machine learning into your business can significantly enhance efficiency, decision-making, and innovation. Machine learning can add value to areas such as customer service automation, predictive maintenance, or personalized email marketing, and reduce manual effort.

To begin, gather and organize relevant data, ensuring it is clean, accurate, and comprehensive. Quality data is the foundation of effective machine learning models. Select appropriate machine learning tools and platforms. Popular options include TensorFlow, scikit-learn, and Microsoft Azure Machine Learning. These tools offer a range of features for different business needs. Develop models tailored to your specific use cases. This involves selecting algorithms, training the models on your data, and fine-tuning them for accuracy.

Lastly, implement the machine learning models in your business processes. Continuously monitor their performance and make necessary adjustments to improve results.

5 ways AI/ML are transforming business operations

Impact Of AI/ML On The Tech Industry

1. Automating routine tasks

As businesses become increasingly reliant on technology, we can see the impact of AI on their processes. AI/ML can be used to automate routine tasks, freeing up employees to focus on more important tasks. This is a great example when one wonders how AI is used in business. This can include anything from automatically responding to customer support queries to compiling data for reports. Automating these tasks can save businesses time and money, and it also reduces the likelihood of human error. As AI/ML become more sophisticated, they will transform how businesses operate. For example, AI-powered chatbots are already being used to handle customer queries, and in the future, they will be able to handle more complex tasks such as sales and marketing. Interactive voice response (IVR) systems, which are now incorporating AI/ML, allowing customers to request support using voice commands and even resolve issues by themselves. With the help of AI/ML, businesses will be able to automate more and more tasks, leading to a more efficient and productive workforce.
Also, read: 6 Tech Recruiting Trends To Watch Out For In 2022

2. Enhancing decision-making

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being used to assist with business decisions. How AI is changing business is now it can be used to predict future outcomes, identify patterns and trends, or recommend courses of action. In many cases, AI can outperform humans when it comes to making decisions based on large amounts of data. This is changing the way businesses operate and giving organizations a competitive edge. As AI technology develops, businesses will be able to reap even more benefits from using it to make decisions. This only highlights how artificial intelligence will transform business in the years to come.

3. Increasing productivity

From automating routine tasks to optimizing processes and improving workflow, artificial intelligence in business operations is helping businesses increase productivity in a number of ways. For example, by automating routine tasks, businesses can reduce the amount of time employees spend on menial tasks. In addition, AI can be used to optimize business processes and improve workflow. And by helping employees focus on more important tasks, AI can help them achieve more in less time. As businesses continue to adopt AI/ML technology, it's clear that these transformative technologies will only become more ubiquitous in the years to come.
Also, read: 21 Tech Recruiting Tools To Scale Your Hiring In 2021

4. Talent sourcing and mapping

This is a process that businesses use in order to find the best talent for their organization. Traditionally, this process involved reviewing resumes and conducting interviews in order to identify the best candidates. However, with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), businesses are now able to source and map talent more efficiently and effectively.One common use of AI in talent sourcing is through the use of chatbots. Chatbots can be used to screen candidates by asking them questions about their skills and experience. This helps to quickly weed out unqualified candidates and save time for both the business and the candidate.

Another common use of AI in talent sourcing is through the use of machine learning algorithms. These algorithms can be used to identify patterns in data related to the said talent. This can include data such as resumes, job postings, and social media profiles. By identifying these patterns, businesses can find the best candidates for a role faster and more efficiently.By using AI to source and map talent, businesses can save time and money. Additionally, AI can help businesses become more competitive by allowing them to reach a larger audience.

5. Collaborative coding interviews in real-time

Another common use of artificial intelligence in businesses is real-time collaborative coding interviews. With this, businesses can assess the coding skills of a candidate in real-time. This is done by having the candidate code on a given problem while being monitored by a computer algorithm.

HackerEarth's FaceCode is the ultimate tool for hiring developers as it comes with a state-of-the-art collaborative code editor, HD video chat, a diagram board, and many more features. FaceCode's AI-powered insights and interview reports help you make the right decision in less time, with greater accuracy.

The interactive diagram boards help you grade a candidate's problem-solving and thought process by making it easier to see how well they communicate with others. The FaceCode system enables employers to record candidates’ responses and store them for future reference so that they can replay any part of the hiring process at their leisure. In addition to masking candidate PII, FaceCode also allows you the ability for fully customizable interview questions and answers. This means that no two interviews will be alike.
Also, read: How Your Tech Stack Can Help You Hire Top Talent

Getting started with machine learning for your business

With AI/ML, businesses are now able to automate processes that used to be done manually. Thus, we can clearly see the future of AI in business. As a business owner, it is important to stay up-to-date on the latest changes in technology so you can know how machine learning and artificial intelligence help businesses and take advantage of these advancements and improve your workflow. As of now, it is very necessary for one to know how to incorporate AI into your business.